70 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The following month, news of the disaster spread through the U.S. press, and some articles reported Suau’s death. For example, we can read in the March 17, 1843, edition of Boston’s weekly newspaper The Liberator that “among the killed is the American Consul. He was taken from under the ruins with both legs broken and put on board an American vessel in the harbor, but died the next day” (in fact, he must have died on the night of February 8). The fate of the consul’s remains is unfortunately unknown, but they were probably buried in Pointe-à-Pitre. e The terrible toll of the earthquake in Guadeloupe prompted a wave of international solidarity, including in the United States. Pointe-à-Pitre was gradually rebuilt, and its Felix H. Suau Esq., United States Consul for the Island of Guadaloupe, who being severely wounded was obliged to have one of his legs amputated, but did not survive the operation.” A U.S. Merchant Marine captain who arrived in the martyred city on February 9, John G. Dillingham, indicated in a letter to his wife three days later that Consul Suau was the only American victim of the cataclysm, but we must be cautious on this point: It is known that several Americans were in Pointe-à-Pitre the day before. In any case, Dillingham’s words are not contradicted by the (very partial) register of deaths linked to the earthquake and fire, drawn up by the municipality of Pointe-àPitre on February 26. According to this document, Felix Henry Suau died on February 8 aboard the American brig Rival; he was 27 years old and single. This map of Pointe-à-Pitre was published in the French magazine L’Illustration on March 25, 1843. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FRANCE Published in L’Illustration on March 18, 1843, this engraving shows the destruction of Pointe-à-Pitre by the earthquake of February 8. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FRANCE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=